Funny that I'm just now seeing this thread...anyways, I'm the bloke "running" the Chronicles of Eve website, although lately, I wouldn't apply the verb "running" to what I've done on it, which is precisely nothing. I've been quite busy working on a big project that I hope to finish and publish within a couple of months.
I appreciate this thread; actually, this was something that cropped up quite early in my efforts to put up something online that was analogous to CCP's official "Chronicles"...that is, Eve fiction with its own online space, along with some artwork. Initially, I put up some stuff without permission, with my own artwork added. Part of the reason for that, was (as Wanoah pointed out), people like Herko were no longer contactable, and some of his work needed and deserved its own space with its own artwork, in my opinion. Quite an arbitrary point of view, and of course, with, incidentally, the artwork chosen being quite arbitrary, of course, I realize. But, I'm sure that many will agree with me.
It was only after being contacted by Ciarente Roth that it occurred to me to actually ask for permission to post these works online. Duh...I should have thought about that, but, no biggie, I rectified her work, by putting a big note at the beginning of her stories, explaining that hers was part of a long story-arc, and directed the reader to her website.
In fact, all of the featured writers - if they actually run websites - are linked into my website, often directly from the story, for which they receive credit. And, of course, I have always given credit to them for their stories.
With regard to the issue of making money off of the site...I am in an affiliate relationship with CCP and BattleClinic...neither of which has paid off. Which is fine, because I don't care about making money off of the site; I didn't put up a fiction site because I need money; in RL, I am actually quite highly-paid, and have the additional perk of actually controlling so much of my time, that much of my work for the site got done at work. Not bragging, just thankful that I have what I have (while I have it!). I actually probably spend about 20% of my day working on fiction-related projects at work (I hope this doesn't come back to bite me later in RL...). So, the site is for my own personal pleasure, and I had hoped, for the reading pleasure of at least a couple of the EVE Online public. Furthermore, when I used stories, not only did I make efforts to get permission, but I usually made a nominal reimbursement of between 2,000 to 5,000 isk per word (I said it was nominal). At the time, I couldn't afford to pay more than that; if and when I decide to start posting folk's works, I will pay a lot more, now that I can.
As far as the "ethics" of posting fan fiction...depending on one's point of view, the whole issue of fan fiction could be interpreted as not only an ethical violation of a company's original work, but also a legal one. As far as I understand it, CCP actually encourages fan fiction, so there really is no ethical issue at hand; if someone else wants to take another's work, and use it, alter it, trash it, etc., there really is nothing that could be done...or even anything that should be said.
Morally, on the other hand, it would seem to be the right thing to do to obtain permission from someone to publish their work. If one would like to be perceived as an honest and upstanding member of a community, then it would seem that obtaining permission to post, giving credit where credit is due, paying for the work, linking a website in with the work, etc., would be the right thing to do - not that the game actually encourages such behavior, now that I think about it. Nevertheless, these are things that I've attempted to do, in order to give the site - and by extension, myself - some credibility in the eyes of the EVE Online reading community. In fact, in many of the longer works, I generally have added an International Creative Commons License [prohibiting alteration of the work], things that were not in the original work.
Not that I'm saying that this subject is not valid; as I mentioned earlier, I appreciate this thread, and am glad that this matter is being discussed. It's actually been a good avenue to get my thoughts on this subject out in the open. And I thought that since this thread had to do with my site, I ought to have thrown in my own two cents-worth, also.
If anyone views my viewpoint as fallacious...I'm quite open to your suggestions, thoughts, advice, recriminations, etc.
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Topic: "Chronicles of Eve" and some digression (Read 4196 times)